Marc Staal updates his condition

Marc Staal skated in practice today, but again did not participate in scrimmages. He spoke to the media afterwards.

Marc Staal:

“Depends on the length and the hardness of the workout. Some days I’ll get a headache late in the day that will last sometimes four or five hours, or last one hour. That’s just the way it’s been going the last couple of weeks.”

“I feel no symptoms if I don’t do anything. If I sit on the couch all day I don’t get any headaches. If I push myself really hard, then later on in the day I’ll, more times than not, get a headache.”

“Those (last) three days were pretty tough. I came to the rink not feeling all that great so we decided to take the foot off the gas a little bit and I felt a little better today.”

On working out this morning and wondering what the afternoon will be like:

“That’s kind of what’s been happening the last few weeks … kind of see where it goes. I felt good again today, I feel fine going through the workouts. I don’t get any symptoms as I’m going through. Just after the fact.”

Similar to the summer:

“It’s better. When I first started in the summer working out, I couldn’t really get through without getting a headache. I had a tough time with that, took some time off, came back and it’s been steadily improving ever since.”

Concern that this is lingering:

“It’s frustrating. It’s something that I’ve never had before so frustration’s probably the best word for it. But I’ve been improving over the last two-three weeks quite a bit. I’m just hoping it keeps going in that direction.”

On brother Eric being upset:

“Well, he’s not real happy about it, no. But, I mean, it is what it is. You can’t really do anything about it now.”

“It was just a consistent thing all summer. It wasn’t like it just popped up. Like I said, after the season, I took a couple of weeks, a month, off, with no headaches. I had a little ringing in the ears, stuff like that, and it was starting to quiet down. And as soon as I started working out again, that’s when I noticed something wasn’t right.”

“Just been doing a lot of neck work, stuff like that. Getting accupuncture the last couple of weeks seemed to help quite a bit with the headaches and stuff. So, I mean there’s only so much you can do.”

“That’s pretty much it. I’ve never really felt nauseous, even over the course of the summer. I just haven’t been able to get through a day of a workout without getting headaches.”

Medical staff’s advice:

“Patience, I guess. Obviously, you guys know with all the attention it’s been getting, it’s kind of a tricky area to predict or to say what to do. So right now, I’ve been improving with working out and working hard, so we’re just going to keep going in that direction until something changes.”

On having symptoms at the end of last season:

“Not noticable, not this bad, I think. At the time, I never had a concussion before. You play 30 minutes a night you feel run down; you don’t feel that great to begin with. So at the time I wasn’t really concerned about it. I just started to notice things a lot more after we got knocked out of the playoffs and I started to work out again.”

Considering going to see specialists, for example, those who work with Sidney Crosby:

“Not yet. I think, with the medical team we have here, they’ve done a great job over the summer and until things … if they get progressively worse, I guess you could outreach a little bit. But as of right now, everything’s fine.”

On John Tortorella not ruling out opening night for him:

“I think, as soon as I can get a stretch in where I’m not getting headaches after workouts, or have a day like yesterday after three hard days, I’ll start playing games. Hopefully, obviously, that’s sooner rather than later.”

Could he jump right in with no preseason games?:

“If I’m healthy. If I feel good. Obviously it’s not an ideal situation to kind of jump right in there in a regular-season game. But at that point you don’t have any options. So if I’m feeling good and we feel, as a training staff and everyone feels I’m ready to go, then I’ll play.”

On early part of training camp:

“I had a little bit of a headache after the first day. It didn’t come until later on at night, and usually I’ve been getting them at 1 or 2 in the afternoon and they’ve been taking a lot longer to come. So that was a big positive. A lot of times I’d wake up not feeling that great, and I woke up feeling fine.”

Carp’d.. from the last post..
Oleo that’s the problem, he could miss 2 games he could miss 20 games, you never know with concussions and the worry with Staal is that 7 months from the date of the concussion he is still having PCS. I think Orr is right, we have Emmy, erixon looks good and is more then likely ready, but is del zotto? Even if he is that’s 6 dmen, do we just go with 6 or do we bring up tank (waiver issues), kundratek, partlett, bell, or look to sign a vet til Staal is back and for injury call ups during the season?

Oh yea that was awesome. I saw that during the game. He pegged the poor camera guy right in the face! That would be Michael Boley throwing the ball. He isn’t accustomed to scoring Touchdowns so I don’t think he had anything planned.

Manny, it’s going to be difficult. Djokovic should have beaten Feds in the French this year and could have had the Grand Slam, but with Nadal and clay, it wont be easy. I do hope someone gets it. Nadal, Feds, or Djo!

4ever, when might I get to see you again? Ill be in NY in mid-November and late December. Gonna get together with a bunch of boneheads. If you ever need someone to talk to about your loss, Im always here.

Yea – this blog is great because we talk about whatever. Then we go crazy about hockey. Then the Rangers win and we have psychic elated posting about how great they are. Then they lose and the site crashes with suicide notes and death threats. Then we do it all over again.

The problem I have with this blog is not of the reporting, carp is an absolute professional and I love almost everything he writes, its the updates about the personal lives of posters, the bullying of groups of participants, and the nonsensical conversations that use this site as the vehicle to have said conversations. You also leave very little room for new faces and IMHO you are missing out on some amazing people and countless information. During the season, this is one of my most cherished blogs and the information is phenomenal and timely, but I refuse to read the comments because out of every 25 comments 2 are worth reading and actually provoke hockey debates and/or knowledge of the game.

I came here as a newbie. A fresh face if you will. A country boy that had recently moved to the great city where his favorite Hockey team calls home. I was bright-eyed and bewildered. Looking for a home of sorts. I found this blog and began posting. At first it was tough to get through. Maybe people didn’t recognize my handle. Maybe my posts weren’t very intuitive. Over time I became a regular. A trusted comrade of this clan of misfits and miscreants. I must say that I am glad I did. It probably saved my life…

Manny, that’s great and I’m happy for you, but its a blog and it shouldn’t be hard to make in impact if your discussing hockey.. many a times comments from passer byes go overlooked and are many times belittled.. ain’t right.

Point is, holypuck, shouldn’t you help contribute something hockey-related rather than stand on the sidelines griping about it? Even amongst the rest of the stuff, a worthy comment on the actual hockey doesn’t usually get ignored. Maybe not line combos though.

And yes, I’m being intensely hypocritical since my contribution is almost exclusively limited to Brodeur fat jokes…

so skip through them like I do, although there really isn’t much to debate right now. The team is essentially set in stone besides maybe one or two players depending on who is hurt, which one of Del Zotto or Erixon gets sent down and whether Torts takes 1 or 2 spare forwards.

The lines might be a little different but the players will be the same…

Carp is the best in the business. This blog is awesome because the community of bloggers is awesome. The comments are a huge part of this blog and it’s success.

Like Orr said, almost every other Rangers’ blog out there is boring beyond belief and the fans are usually only interested in being in outdoing each other or proposing trades. Thank god we have real people and real personalities who are passionate about the Rangers and like to converse. I like being a part of a community of Boneheads…

I do try oleo, but thank you. I like zucc, was at the game for his first goal, but opening night I think avs gets the start because one two things, his conditioning, apparently immaculate and its hisblast yr to prove himself or reinvent, so to say.

talk hockey…nobody stops you. theres plenty of that here. we do not miss on any info. it flows through here constantly…you just have to pay attention. this place is full of amazing people…that’s why its so special. if you want to be part of it, fine…if not, nobody will cry…but stop with your childish complains about how this place is never about hockey. you just wrong.

For those who don’t know, this whole argument started because I was trying to evoke a discussion on mara and where we stand on what we will do on the blueline if Staal needs to miss a good portion of the season and if sauer starts to become injury prone.

Mara WILL not be a Ranger ever again. Its just pointless to even talk about it. Stahl is back on the ice and practicing… 300 different reporters wrote about it… and yes, up to last season Sauer was pretty injury prone that is why he wasn’t called up for so long. If Sauer or Stowl go down, we have plenty of prospects to take their place instead of Mara.

holy, thanks for the kind words. And I agree with you to a degree that we need to be more accepting and a little less “clubby” here. In fact, this year I hope to recruit a lot of new readers. See, the more traffic we get, the more hockey my bosses let me do. Our numbers are great, but they could be better.

I’m OK with (and somewhat responsible for) the gibberish and non-hockey talk that goes on around here, but sometimes that’s a product of trying to be 24/365, which the other sites don’t do. sometimes there’s just no hockey to discuss. And I dislike too much line-combo talk.

I also think there’s a lot of good comedy here and that’s part of what makes this place unique and great.

I don’t post too much especially during the off season but I have been following this blog for about 3 years now and I love it. I’m not a regular contributer like some of the others here but I never felt picked on or ignored. The only people I’ve seen get picked on are people like you who complain about the content on this blog or the trolls to instigate stuff.

Nobody forces you to read the comments. If you like Carp’s work then read it and move on.
Just my two cents.

I personally like talking about tuches. For instance, Jaromir Jagr has the nicest aasen I have ever seen! Even better than Laurel’s aasen in a bikini! Dont worry Laurel, your aasen is beeeautiful. Also, CCCP’s aasen is to-die-for!!

ORR!! when I was a kid my grandfather would get REALLY mad if I ordered a Shirley Temple. He said I had to order a “Roy Rogers” which apparently is the boy version. It’s made with coca-cola instead of ginger ale.

Mara told the Islanders to join Olga’s family, Latona… Where is Olga anyways?

Holypuck- by posting a few of your own non-hockey related posts you, unknowingly, contributed to what makes this place unique. We can talk about anything, and people still listen and discuss. This isn’t just a blog, it’s a community. And, I believe, it’s a much more tolerant community than you have suggested.

Sorry to say it folks, but it doesn’t sound like Stool will be ready by opening night. Nor should they rush him. He is a shutdown defenseman, his game is somewhat physical. He needs to heal fully. It sounds line it’ll take some time.

Latona, I have 13 of their regular season games, complete and live broadcasts. 12 more regular season games I have coming to me. And I have their first 2 rounds against the Caps and Isles, again, all complete and live broadcasts.

The reporters have to calm down with tweets like that. They’re just inciting panic, which invariably leads to palpatations and headaches. I just want the season to start so that every time Waseka updates I don’t freak out!

Latona, Thanks. It started with me wanting to get 1986 and 1990 Giants games, so I bought all of their games. Then I started trying to collect Lawrence Taylor’s entire career. Then it moved to getting every special Yankees game, and every game from the Yankees championships seasons and Mets 86 championship season. It went then from sports to Awards shows, I have the 1953 Oscars with Bob Hope! I have 30,000+ events in my collection, but I never find time to list them all into a spreadsheet, so I mainly go off memory. I have the entire 2009 Yankees, every preseason game that aired, all 162 reg. season games, and the playoffs, all with pre and postgames. I have all 82 of the Rangers and bruins games from last year, with pre and postgames, plus the 6 rangers preseason games and 5 playoff games. It’s fun, but it’s time consuming.

Manny, it started out with me buying games, then I found people via craigslist ads that had games. I once drove up to DC to pick up 500 VHS tapes from a person that was moving, they had already transferred them to DVDs and didnt want the VHS tapes. So I got them. I still have 2000 VHS tapes of my own that I have never found the time to go through and transfer. Then I found trading communities that I joined, and then I just record via DVR Directv from a computer and pay my brother to record it off the DVRs to DVDs for me. I dont have all of Lawrence Taylor’s games yet, or all of the 90s Yankees championship season regular season games yet, but I hope to get there in the next couple years.

Oh, and how could I forget tennis! I like all the matches of the major players, like Lendl, McEnroe, Sampras, Agassi, Graf, Seles, Venus, Serena, Feds, Djokovic, Nadal, Murray, and every match of a Grand Slam Tournament of the winner. Stupid American TV usually dont show complete matches of Quarterfinals of the French and Wimbledon, etc. so I have someone in England record all of the matches on Eurosport!

Oh, and Golf!!! All the rounds of all the majors. I have all the final rounds of all the majors since the 1980s, and I have almost every round of every tournament Tiger Woods has ever won. I dont have the 2nd round of the 1997 Masters, but during the tv broadcast of that 2nd round, Tiger wasnt on the course, so I suppose I really dont need it, but I still want it, lol

My favorite golf tournament is the 1999 US Open, Payne Stewart won. He died later in the year in a plane crash, along with a close friend of Chipper Jones. Chipper Jones hit a homer in Game 1 of the 1999 World Series against the Yankees iirc, and when he crossed home plate, he pointed up to the sky in dedication to Payne.

This is fun to talk about. This year’s hockey slate includes every reg. season, playoff game of the Rangers, bruins, Flyers b/c of Jaromir, Penguins b/c they might win the Cup, Canadiens b/c they’re the most prestigious hockey team in terms of titles, and the Wings b/c they’re always Cup contenders.

Sry, cccp at 3:10, what prospects do you think will get the first shot if god forbid one of the two is out for significant time? Well possibly see kundratek, tank (but the waiver issues probably restrict him), or partlett, who I really liked because he stood out as a more complete defender with offensive upside during traverse city. U think bell has any shot?

Thanks, Manny. LOL Latona. Its all part of a trading community, with people in Australia, France, England, USA, etc. You ask people to get games that you cant get, like tennis matches that idiotic American TV doesnt show in entirety, and you get all the NFL games, etc.

I got into European football in 2005, and started collecting all of the big 4 of England, the 2 in Spain, and the 2 in Italy, along with Bayern Munich matches. Now I record every Man U, Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal, Man City, and Tottenham match, Barcelona, Madrid, Inter, and Milan, and Munich

For instance, I missed the first 5 minutes of the Dolphins Texans game from this Sunday. It was on my local TV, but they put the end of the Bills game on the cable and it made me miss the first 5 minutes. I also missed from the 9 minute mark of the 4th Quarter of the Jets-Jaguars game because that was on cable and when the Jets were up 32-3, my local CBS cut it off to show the end of the Bills game that ran into the beginning of the Dolphins game. So I messaged my guy in PA, and he’ll ship them out this week.

I believe Valentenko is making the team as the 7th d-man and one of Del Zotto or Erixon will be sent to HFD.

Even if Erixon plays well enough to make the team, if Del Zotto is playing well enough he has to make the team b/c of his offense. It can’t hurt for Erixon to go down to HFD for a month or two so they can better gauge where Valentenko is at and whether they can risk losing him.